To make the topic of stars meaningful for students, I provided them with many first hand experiences with the phenomena. I assigned four star gazing assignments that required students to take a closer look at the same stars that they see every night. The assignments were designed to promote inquiry by teaching students how to observe nature and question the behavior of it by asking why. The unit also provided students with many opportunities to investigate interesting and important stellar topics such as black holes, habitable zones of stars, stellar evolution, and H-R Diagrams through research and experimentation. In addition, students were able to explore these topics through the use of technology and cooperative learning.
The use of inquiry was utilized throughout the unit. Students were required to question observations they made on homework assignments as well as in activities that were carried out in the classroom. Each lesson started out with a question being posed to the students followed by a discussion. These daily questions allowed students to question the everyday phenomena they’ve experienced and try to explain it using their prior knowledge. The discussions also allow for the teacher to review previously learned concepts and correct any misconceptions that students have about their prior knowledge. Once the prior knowledge is addressed, new concepts can be added on. The classroom activities also provided assessments for the lessons. The opening discussions allow the teacher to pre assess the class and the activities that follow the lesson act as a reinforcement for the students and an assessment so the teacher can know if the class is understanding the material.
This unit was designed so that all of the basic concepts would be covered in the beginning creating a foundation so that more complex topics can be easily taught. The unit started out with discussing the basic properties of stars (magnitude, temperature, color, mass, etc) that students could easily observe. Once students had the basic knowledge of these factors they were able to be combined to teach harder concepts that students couldn’t easily observe such as: how stars form and age, how star distances are measured, how stars support life, how stars are classified, etc). To help students make sense of everything I think the design of the unit helps as well as the visual components to it. Some things are better understood when they can be observed. I think that this unit is very visual which makes it more interesting and fun for the students which can make some concepts easier to learn. Students are more interested in learning about things that may not be easily understood and that have a sense of uncertainty or unknown. From this unit I hope it will show students that stars are more then just little twinkling dots in the sky, but that they are an important part to the make up and composition of the universe.
The use of inquiry was utilized throughout the unit. Students were required to question observations they made on homework assignments as well as in activities that were carried out in the classroom. Each lesson started out with a question being posed to the students followed by a discussion. These daily questions allowed students to question the everyday phenomena they’ve experienced and try to explain it using their prior knowledge. The discussions also allow for the teacher to review previously learned concepts and correct any misconceptions that students have about their prior knowledge. Once the prior knowledge is addressed, new concepts can be added on. The classroom activities also provided assessments for the lessons. The opening discussions allow the teacher to pre assess the class and the activities that follow the lesson act as a reinforcement for the students and an assessment so the teacher can know if the class is understanding the material.
This unit was designed so that all of the basic concepts would be covered in the beginning creating a foundation so that more complex topics can be easily taught. The unit started out with discussing the basic properties of stars (magnitude, temperature, color, mass, etc) that students could easily observe. Once students had the basic knowledge of these factors they were able to be combined to teach harder concepts that students couldn’t easily observe such as: how stars form and age, how star distances are measured, how stars support life, how stars are classified, etc). To help students make sense of everything I think the design of the unit helps as well as the visual components to it. Some things are better understood when they can be observed. I think that this unit is very visual which makes it more interesting and fun for the students which can make some concepts easier to learn. Students are more interested in learning about things that may not be easily understood and that have a sense of uncertainty or unknown. From this unit I hope it will show students that stars are more then just little twinkling dots in the sky, but that they are an important part to the make up and composition of the universe.